Hell and High Water
by shiverfan14
Summary: All his life, he's known these three things. The darkness. Loneliness. And fear. But he soon comes to understand a much more different and harsher meaning behind these things. And somehow, he ends up finding something he never knew he needed.


He's only known three things his entire life.

The darkness.

loneliness.

And fear.

He's heard the songs from mermaids that live in the light, whenever they get close enough to his chasm, their fun and light tunes echo down the walls and into his home. He hears their declarations of love and if friendship, of kinship with their family. Something he has never had.

While he's tried to made friends in the past; he learned early on that no one wants to be friends with a midnight merman like him. Not with his sharp teeth and armored scales. Not with his spines that travel down his back. Not with his coloring and his scars. The only things he's been able to call 'friends' is the few fish that would swim under him when he must travel to new caverns and ravines, but he knows they're only using him as protection. He can't blame them for hiding under him, no creature really tries to fight him or hunt him anymore.

Down here,in the midnight zone, he is the hunter.

It doesn't mean that there haven't been challengers in the past; creatures of the deep trying to prey on him when he was younger and weaker or trying to impede on his hunting grounds. And he wears the scars he gained from these battles to prove he is not to be taken lightly. No one bothers him in his domain, no one dares to try and go down into it. To afraid that his wrath will end their lives. Rumors of his fights with sharks and squids and other creatures of the deep have travelled so far that even he has heard of them. He doesn't blame them for being scared of him. He doesn't blame them for keeping their distance from the chasms and ravines, afraid to be his next victim. Though, if they knew him, they would realize that he is not mindless monster like all the rumors say, he does not attack unprovoked or for the fun of it. He is not that type of merman. Of course he doesn't really know any other type.

He never knew his parents; but of course, he's never met anyone like him. Never heard of them, never seen a glimpse of something like him. He doesn't even know his name, or if he even has one. Many have called him a monster, some call him a myth or a legend. But he's never heard anyone call a name down into his ravines. Never something that someone could deem as a name.

Sometimes, when the quiet and darkness get to be too much for him, he'll swim as high as he dares, sometimes even getting into the twilight zone, and he'll wonder what it's like to live in the light, with the other mermaids and to see that is out above the sea, in the warmth of the light. But He knows that it would be impossible to do this. His eyes being accustomed to the pitch black darkness and soft lighting from the bioluminescent occupants. Going to the upper zone for more than the few minutes it takes for him to find another cavern is always risky, but going up full time would probably make him of blind. Besides the fact that he is larger than the average merman, it would probably cause some humans to think of him as some sea beast and try to kill him. The upper zone is too dangerous for a merman like him, so he stays in the dark, where it's safe.

He moves through the sea, always keeping to the darkest parts to avoid detection. The large armored plates moving seamlessly with each powerful wave of his tattered and ripped tail. The thin spines that travel down his spine picking up every movement around him, helping him keep tabs on where any possible prey or predator might be. He knows that many predators have learned to fear him as much as the other mermaids do, but he's been wrong before,and has paid the price for such hope of being able to relax. But he's learned, and now he never lets his guard down.

He passes by the many bioluminescent fish that live in these cold waters with him; many of which would terrify other mermaids or merman; but to him they are merely a common occurrence. helping to give a little light in their dark home. His own bioluminescence hidden by his larger armored scales, only glimpses of it is shown when he moves, giving off a flickering pattern that dances off the high walls of the ravine that he currently glides through, warning any predators that he is not to be messed with, or luring in prey for him to eat. But that seems to be the problem as of right now, too many now hide from him when they see his lights or even feel his presence coming near them, forcing him to have to travel to another chasm to find a new hunting ground. His brown hair floating near his eyes as he lazily moves through the water, the cold water a soothing balm to his overactive mind.

To him, today should like every other lonely day. Except something doesn't feel right about today. It's quiet. Which it always is. But it feels like it not for the usual reasons. It's unnervingly quiet.

As he nears the end of the ravine, he starts to swim slower, building up the energy for him to swim through the upper waters at incredible speeds to avoid being found and to limit his time in the brighter waters. at least until he is able to get out into the open sea, where he will be able to find the midnight zone once again. With one strong flick of his tail, he shoots out of the ravine, and quickly speeds towards the open ocean, looking for any sign of the twilight zone, so that he may find better cover than being out in the open.

That is when his spines pick up on something disturbing the water above him. By the time he looks up, he sees the net coming down hard and fast, covering a wide area of where he is. He quickly tries to swim out of reach, but it seems that the net was too quick for him, as it drapes around him and starts to tangle around his tail and fins. He tries to bite through it, but the net is already pulling him up; higher and higher to the brightness, making it hard on his eyes to be able to see anything. Suddenly he's no longer in the water, while he can't see it, he can no longer get in a good deep breath through his gills. He's suddenly dropped onto something hard and dry and rough on his skin. All he can hear is loud yelling in words he can't understand, and the call of something that is not organic. He can't get a read on any of it, his sense being overloaded with sounds and smells and that sea-damned brightness that make it impossible to see anything. It's all just too much for him, he tries to find water again, but it seems that whoever was yelling from before is starting to drag him; his skin breaking against the rough surface underneath him.

He never really prayed to any of the gods that many mermen believe in, but he finds himself wishing to whoever is out there that he's going to be back in the sea again; to be able to breath right again. But no, it seems that even the gods have forsaken him, as he's pulled down into some sort of encased cave, and he's dumped into a small pool of water, net still tangled around his arms and tail.

"At least it's darker down here than up there."

He thinks to himself, trying to keep his scales from drying out in the small pool. It's obviously too small for him; not even being able to make a complete turn. But he'll take what he can get, at least until he finds a way out of this odd cave. But first he needs to get this net off of him, or else it could do more damage to his fins and tail. It feels like it takes him all day to get the net off, and he knows that he'll definitely have some new rips in his tail fin. But it seems that not of his spines got damaged, so he's calling it a small win. It's around this time that someone enters the cave, bringing the smell of something odd with them. He sees that it's a large old man, a scar traveling down the side of his face, and a cruel look in his eyes that even some sharks would avoid him at all costs. He dumps the strange smelling thing into the small pool, and his hunger getting the best of him, he swims down to see that it's a piece of fish. As he picks it up and makes sure nothing was done to it, he feels something clamping down onto his tail. He whirls around and sees that the man has attached a chain onto his tail. Long enough to let him move around freely in the pool, but short enough to keep him just in the pool. He can't help but thrash his tail about, trying to rid himself of the device keeping him there. And while he loses water from the thrashing, the cold stone still stays on tight around the base of his tail fin. He can hear the man giving off some sort of chuffing, and realizes that that must be how humans laugh. This man is laughing at him. He instinctively bares his teeth and nails, trying to fan out his fins in the small space. But it only seems to make the man laugh even more.

The man leans down and says the first words he's heard since they stole him from his home.

"Get used to it. Cause as soon as we get back to the mainland, you're gonna be sold to the highest bidder."

And with that the man laughs as he leaves him alone in the cave once again. And while he wasn't able to completely understand what that man said, he understood enough to know that he might never go back home again. Not knowing what else to do, the starts to thrash his tail once again, screaming out, hoping for the chain to give and break. But it still hold strong, while his wails echo off the wall of the cave.

No.

This is no cave.

This is a cage.


End file.
